Samsung held its NewFronts presentation Tuesday, where the electronics giant unveiled a slew of content and advertising updates meant to engage users of its smart TV platform and pique interest of brands and advertisers looking to invest.
On the sidelines of the NewFronts presentation in New York City, StreamTV Insider caught up with Salek Brodsky, SVP and Global Head of Samsung TV Plus and Michael Scott, VP and head of Ad Sales & Operations at Samsung Ads to discuss some of the smart TV maker’s latest and greatest.
Samsung Television Network – broad-based FAST curation for viewers, advertisers
One major announcement to come out of the event is Samsung TV Plus’ launch of the Samsung Television Network (STN).
It’s a new free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel that aggregates the best and most-watched content on the device maker’s built-in streaming service into one, curated 24-7 channel. At launch, STN will feature content from some of its big-name exclusive channels like dedicated ones featuring episodes from late night hosts David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, alongside series like Killing Eve, and live sports and other events - including serving as the exclusive live home for the Jonas Brothers’ upcoming tour.
It marks a different type of format from many channels typically found on FAST – which, as Brodsky noted, as of now tend to be genre-based (like Westerns, for example) or show-specific (also known as single-series IP or “binge” channels for some). Samsung for its part is calling STN a “broad-FAST channel”.
Brodsky told StreamTV Insider that STN is data driven and part of the aim is to understand exactly what consumers enjoy – and not just in absolute terms - but when they enjoy certain programming.
With this effort, Samsung is harking back to traditional TV networks, where it’s looking to serve up various types of content to consumers at different and appropriate times of the day to align with what they want to watch at that time – and, according to Scott, also cater to advertisers who are used to a more legacy model of dayparts and audiences.
“With STN, we're basically taking a page out of legacy networks and saying it doesn't have to be genre,” Brodsky said about the FAST channel. “It can be relevant to the consumer at different times of the day without needing to necessarily scroll through channels.”
With an abundance of channels to choose from (including on STVP, which has more than 700 channels plus on-demand content), discovery can be an issue for FAST and STN wants to make the choice for daily tune-in a little bit easier.
Samsung’s philosophy as a service, according to Brodsky, is to package programming for consumers to enjoy all day every day.
“This is effectively taking that concept, which we’ve executed flawlessly on the service level, and adapting it to the channel level,” Brodsky said of STN.
Asked if there are any plans to distribute STN beyond the confines of Samsung devices, Brodsky said “never say never” – but cited “enormous opportunity” within the Samsung ecosystem, noting it will first look to entertain the nearly 100 million global Samsung device users before seeking to export the channel elsewhere. STN is first launching in the US and will expand and scale to other markets, with Samsung currently operating in 30 countries.
Even within the US, Samsung has plenty of users to entertain with Samsung TV Plus, counting 88 million monthly active users and marking 30% viewership growth this year – which execs on stage said “equates to billions more hours of viewing as compared to 2024.”
The STN appeal for advertisers
As mentioned, being able to buy against more premium content that’s contextually relevant based on time day could also sit well with advertisers trying to make informed buying decisions in a fragmented, and sometimes opaque, streaming ad ecosystem.
One challenge often heard about FAST is a lack of transparency for advertisers in terms of where or what content their ads run against. But according to Scott, that’s not so much of a problem for Samsung through its ads reporting suite, as he said some of the opacity issues are really in the programmatic open exchanges.
The ad exec told StreamTV Insider that “advertisers really like working direct” with Samsung Ads, including in private-marketplaces (PMP) and other environments because they’re getting the inventory from the source, while also emphasizing that Samsung wants to share as much information with advertisers as it can within bid requests.
“We're working incredibly hard to bring this audience in with high quality content. To be honest, I want to get credit for it with the advertisers,” Scott told STV Insider. To that end, “we're going to share as much as we can [with advertisers] from a data perspective,” he added.
When advertising against STN, brands have the chance to utilize Samsung’s full smart TV platform, including touchpoints on the home screen, the Samsung TV Plus UI and interactive ads within commercial breaks.
And while the execs didn’t say so directly, having a free streaming channel that runs a variety of content that aligns with the time of day could in theory encourage more of a daily habit or habitual use from consumers and up that ever-important engagement factor - compared to say a binge-sesh for a single series that might not be an everyday routine.
That said, Samsung shared stats that show users are already engaging and coming back to Samsung TV Plus, saying it is the No. 1 streaming service on Samsung TVs based on monthly active users and the No. 1 FAST app on the smart TV platform based on time spent. The smart TV maker also disclosed that 92% of first-time viewers continue to watch STVP beyond the three-month mark, suggesting stickiness.
The idea of debuting a free streaming channel more akin to a traditional network lineup also goes back to what STVP’s Takashi Nankano told STV Insider back in 2023 in terms of what Samsung was aiming to do in even earlier days – which is to make FAST more like an everyday TV experience – albeit delivered via streaming and for free.
But while looking to legacy networks for inspiration, that doesn’t mean Samsung is eschewing new types of content, ad formats or consumer trends – all of which were also on display Tuesday at NewFronts.
In addition to device scale, a big part of Samsung’s strategy and differentiation both for consumers and advertisers is curation, according to Scott. The company wants to package and produce both content and ads in a TV-ready and brand-safe way – including as it seeks to bring new types of content like video podcasts, as well as other creators into the mix.
Samsung’s presentation wasn’t short on news, but Brodsky and Scott shared comments on two other key highlights – a partnership with Spotify that’s adds video podcasts to STVP and a new type of ad break that marries creators with interactive shoppable ad units.
Spotify partnership, adding creator content
Partnering with Spotify, STVP is getting an exclusive, dedicated free streaming video podcast channel of “The Ringer” – home to popular podcasts and talent in sports and pop culture.
The curated channel will feature video podcast episodes for shows such as Book of Basketball 2.0 with Bill Simmons, The ReWatchables, Higher Learning, and The Ringer-Verse.
According to Brodsky, podcast creators have largely been relegated to mobile devices and on platforms like YouTube or Spotify, and while viewable on the living room TV screen have previously been presented in a “non made-for-TV way”.
In curating a dedicated video podcast channel “the idea is really to take this content and package it and produce channels that are actually made for TV,” he said.
It’s what STVP has already done for its David Letterman and Conan O’Brien channels and wants to replicate with video podcasts. Instead of presenting viewers with a bunch of haplessly aggregated clips or content that’s stitched together by an algorithm, it wants to provide creator-driven channels that are produced and packaged with a TV-first viewing experience in mind.
“There’s an art to actually packaging the programming and creating an entire experience around the creator brands. And that's what we're proud of,” Brodsky said, adding it was done with the two aforementioned late night host channels and “now we’re just hitting the gas.”
In fact, on stage executives said STVP is doubling down on top creators, including STEM programming creator Mark Rober and family-friendly drama content creator Dhar Mann inking new partnerships with the platform. Additional exclusive partnerships with creators for new free ad-supported streaming channels include Michelle Khare, Smosh, The Try Guys, Epic Gardening, The Sorry Girls, and Donut Media.
ShoppingBreaks
Another key aim for Samsung is to provide a full funnel for advertisers, from awareness down to conversion.
And it’s combining creators with interactive shoppable ad formats, dubbed “ShoppingBreaks,” launching later this year.
ShoppingBreaks will serve up creator-hosted, short-form content within Samsung TV Plus ad breaks, with a clear call to action and the ability for consumers to buy directly from their TVs.
Scott told STV Insider that ShoppingBreaks represent a “real hallmark” of what the platform can do – noting QR codes were there previously, but that Samsung wasn’t comfortable with injecting commerce until it could figure out how to make it better both for the advertiser and for the consumer.
With Samsung being a leading consumer electronics brand, he said it’s all about consumer experience first and then business applications that can stem from there.
“I think that's an incredibly elegant way to kind of knit those things together,” Scott said of melding creators and brands with interactive shoppable ad breaks, adding “it’s really only the start.”
From an ad sales perspective, Scott said his challenge to the product and services side is to “take as many steps out between impression and that conversion event” – which ShoppableBreaks aim to achieve by shortening the path to purchase.
Here again, it comes back to curation and Brodsky noted that STVP will work with both creators directly and brands to integrate the ad experience.
“I think that kind of curation gives advertisers a tremendous amount of security and brand safety…that they know that their ads are going to run in environments that you know are curated by the third most admired brand in the world, Samsung,” Scott added.
More Samsung NewFront tidbits
- In addition to interactive shoppable ads, Samsung is expanding its lineup of GameBreaks interactive mini-games, adding eight new games to the portfolio this year. Per Samsung, its interactive mini-games during ad breaks, like The Six, boost brand recall by 1.5x over standard video ads.
- Investing more in live: The live event lineup is expanding with the Jonas Brothers’ Living the Dream Tour, including live performances and behind-the-scenes content. STVP has a new and exclusive partnership with Billboard, with the network bringing live red carpets and coverage for over 25 events, alongside new weekly episodes of Billboard News.
- New sports channels include Bally Sports Live with exclusive Minor League Baseball games and Victory+ with in-season NHL games from the Anaheim Ducks and the Dallas Stars.
- Launching data-as-a-service with Data+: Samsung Ads is making TV data available to ad clients in an aggregated, privacy-compliant manner via data cleanrooms, including partnerships with Snowflake, LiveRamp, and Infosum. Data+ will enable advertisers to deduplicate reach across linear and CTV viewing, run audience overlap analyses against Samsung’s TV ecosystem for more accurate scale determinations and improved ability to understand consumer behavior after seeing an ad.
- Audience Collectives - powered by AI and Samsung’s first-party TV and mobile data, Samsung Ads offers more than 600 audience segments for advertisers. Optiumal Reach – identifies duplicated audiences and identifies previously unexposed viewers across linear and AVOD.